When you take remote control of someone's computer, you are inside their working life — their documents, their mail, their browser tabs. The technical part of a remote session is easy. The conduct is what makes it professional.
Before connecting
- 1
Verify the user through the approved process
Remote access is never the step where verification gets skipped.
- 2
Explain what you are about to do
One plain sentence: what you will see, what you will change, and how long it should take.
- 3
Ask for explicit permission and wait for it
- 4
Ask them to close anything private first
Personal mail, medical portals, financial pages. Offering this unprompted is the single easiest way to earn trust.
- 5
Confirm they will stay present
The user should remain at the machine for the whole session. Do not continue on an unattended computer.
During the session
- Narrate what you are doing. Silence while their cursor moves on its own is unsettling.
- Stay inside the problem. Do not open applications, files, or folders unrelated to the ticket.
- If you see something private, say nothing, look away from it, and move on.
- Ask before installing, uninstalling, or restarting anything.
- If the user asks you to stop, stop immediately — no negotiation.
Ending the session
- 1
Tell the user you are finished and disconnecting
- 2
End the session properly in the console
Closing a window is not the same as terminating the session. Confirm it has actually ended.
- 3
Confirm the user can see their own cursor is back
A short, reassuring close beats a silent disconnect.
- 4
Summarise what you changed
In the call and in the ticket. Someone else may inherit this machine's next problem.
- 5
Note that permission was obtained
A one-line record. It protects the user and it protects you.